Some of us are puzzle people — connect-the-dots and fill-in-the-blanks types. Some are keyed into data, math and science. And then there are those whose highest marks are earned in the “works well with others” category.

Combine all of the above, and move to the head of the class.

Such is the current scenario for the young-of-the-year class of wild rainbow trout in the South Platte River within Eleven Mile Canyon. Thanks to a cooperative effort among Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologists, Denver Water and Aurora Water, the stretch of river thought to have the greatest potential as a trout fishery on the South Platte is once again living up to expectations.

“The upper reach of Eleven Mile Canyon is one of only two places on the South Platte where we have wild trout fisheries, with no stocking whatsoever,” said Jeff Spohn, CPW’s aquatic biologist for the South Park area. “Back in 2000, we put in a catch-and-release regulation requiring fishing by artificial fly and lures only, and the fishery really took off. But over the past four years or so, it really started to decline.”

As a math guy, Spohn did a bit of scientific sleuthing to discover what he considered the culprit behind the fishery’s demise. He studied a decade’s worth of daily water release data from Eleven Mile Reservoir and Spinney Mountain Reservoir upstream, analyzing it alongside rainbow trout young-of-the-year numbers, then called in the puzzle people responsible for moving water through the system to Denver and Aurora.

“I presented the data to Denver Water and Aurora Water and said, ‘If you can give us the required flow regimes during spawning, egg incubation and fry emergence, I can guarantee we will see the fishery come back,’ ” Spohn said. “It’s statistically proven that when the flows dramatically changed in those critical periods, recruitment is impacted.”

Although Spohn uses some fancy words for a math guy, the numbers tell the tale. In 2000, when the regulations were changed from an allowance of two trout of 16 inches or more to the current mandatory release, the density of trout in the upper canyon was 140 fish per acre. By fall of 2003, the new regulations helped that number climb to 521 fish per acre. But by 2011, the density had declined inexplicably to 202, with a low of just 23 fish per acre in the fall of 2008.

The explanation, it turns out, was the erratic discharge of water being released from Eleven Mile Reservoir during the critical stages of rainbow trout spawning between April and June. Eggs laid in shallow water were dried out when flows were reduced post-spawn, and the small fry that did hatch were being blasted out of their habitat by high flows in June.

“If you look at 2008, the worst year on record, during the fourth week of April the river was flowing at about 250 (cubic feet per second). By the third week of May, it was down to about 80 cfs. So they dried up the redds,” Spohn said. “They just didn’t know. By the fourth week of June, the water was back up to 425 cfs. So then they blasted them. The same scenario happened in 2010, when we had 70 young-of-the-year per acre.”

Spohn settled on a steady spawning flow of 75 cfs last April and made his pitch. The fly in the ointment was water rights and management strategies. Aurora Water owns Spinney Mountain Reservoir, and Denver Water owns Eleven Mile Reservoir. Water released from Spinney travels into Eleven Mile Reservoir and then flows down to Eleven Mile Canyon. Under normal operations, the river flow in Eleven Mile Canyon reflects Aurora Water’s operations at Spinney Mountain Reservoir.

After Spohn and CPW approached them, Denver and Aurora devised a plan to manage demand though water loans by incorporating a third reservoir, Strontia Springs, downstream. The coordinated efforts yielded the fourth best recruitment class of rainbow trout on record in the canyon.

“This is not our area of expertise. I’m an engineer,” said Brian Fitzpatrick, water resource project manager for Aurora Water. “That’s why we rely on people like Jeff Spohn to tell us what they think is an appropriate course of action.”

“I think we were all really pleasantly surprised,” said Dave Bennett, water resource project manager for Denver Water. “When Jeff showed us the results of the coordinated operation we did last year, we were really excited. It looked like a significant impact.”

Fishing, of course, is an ancillary byproduct for water providers focused on meeting the demands of Front Range consumers. But through coordinated efforts emanating from a pact known as the South Platte Protection Plan, fishermen and other recreational users of the river can anticipate seeing the benefits of similar cooperative efforts in the future.

“We are doing it again this year, right now in fact,” said Bennett, adding that river flows should remain stable for another month in the canyon. “Part of our mission is to be responsible stewards of the water. That’s what we’re always looking to do. We’re looking for multiple uses that meet the demands of our customers but at the same time benefit the fishery and benefit other forms of recreation.

“It’s just a different way of looking at things. We see more cooperation among water users now. I think folks are looking for these types of opportunities.”

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